


Not perfect

by imperfekti



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 22:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3912601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfekti/pseuds/imperfekti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things between Chitose and Kippei weren't always perfect, but that was okay because they never needed to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not perfect

**Author's Note:**

> This was another one of those little song prompt drabbles in the beginning, but it got a little out of hand.

Being with Kippei wasn't always perfect. Sometimes he was way too restless, too easy to complain about Chitose being "too lazy" and “shouldn't you get a proper job already”.

It was pretty much the same when they were kids. Skipping school wasn’t exactly the lazy choice though, not when Kippei insisted they should at least go play tennis if they were cutting classes. Still, who else would he have skipped with? They'd been doing that together since elementary after all, whether it was to conquer the playground close to where they lived, hang out at the arcades, or, eventually, to hit some tennis balls around. Chitose still laughed sometimes about how silly a thing that was to do, when you stopped to think about it.

That was when they still lived in Kumamoto. That phase didn't end so nicely though. There was that thing in their match in middle school, and while Chitose got over the thing itself pretty easy - it's not like Kippei meant for his eye to go bad - he thought it was pretty shitty that Kippei just started ignoring him afterwards. So that was a low point in their friendship, and there was a time Chitose wondered if it was the end too.

After Kippei transferred to Tokyo when his father did for work, and Chitose went to get his eye looked at by some specialists and eventually settled down in Osaka, he found himself less than totally done with tennis and Kippei, intuitively comparing all the new people to him. Surely it was natural though, it's not like he had had any other friends who were that tight with him before. Getting to know the jokesters at Shitenhouji, Chitose had to admit there had been more good sides to the guy than he had used to think. Like, at least he didn't wear weird costumes to their matches or pester him to join the scriptwriting for their comedy piece in the school festival. It's not like Chitose thought he was always a pinnacle of focus himself, but still, he kind of thought all that extra was a little excessive at times and ended up skipping again. He remembered complaining once that Kippei was playing too simple, but thinking about it later on he guessed that straightforwardness was not only a bad thing. (Plus, Kippei was better looking than Osaka's pretty boys, but that was besides the point and Chitose was probably not supposed to be thinking about stuff like that about a guy like Kippei.)

Then again, Kippei was also fucking stupid when they met again. What if he had messed up his own eye too with that show in their game? He was an idiot and yeah, maybe Chitose was also actually somewhat happy that they had had the chance to meet again and that Kippei had obviously been thinking about him too, and maybe that match made Chitose totally fall for him (or totally admit it to himself, finally), but seriously that ball to the eye thing was just stupid.

Chitose told Kippei as much when they were ripping each other's clothes off after fifteen minutes together alone in his room, the one Chitose had never been in before. Kippei’s breath was hot on his neck when he told him to shut up about it already, and what with his hands pushing their way inside his boxers, Chitose did forget about it for a while.

So apparently sex was pretty nice. Having it with Kippei was pretty nice. To be honest Chitose wasn't thinking about having it with anyone else in particular, either. But that didn't change the fact they didn't live in the same city anymore. So that sucked, and what sucked more was Kippei having become so damn responsible he didn't want to call off weekend practices with his team even when the Nationals were over and Kippei was supposed to graduate from the team soon enough like Chitose had done ("I need to help them prepare for next year!" he said. Since when did he become such an altruist?). Chitose liked to think he was pretty relaxed most of the time, but using a Saturday afternoon observing Fudoumine's tennis club practice when he thought he was going to be in Kippei's bed trying to be quiet enough for An and their folks to let them be wasn't exactly what he had hurried to Tokyo for.

The sex ended up being worth the wait though. And so was ordering pizza together afterwards, pairing up with Kippei to beat An and redheaded tennis boy she had called over in Alias, having sex again after the guy left, and sitting on the roof afterwards and just, talking.

Just talking was what they had most of the time. Chitose’s dad wasn’t too thrilled with the phone call bills he had to pay for that. So he got a job for himself through his contacts at the university, writing out some research interview tapes and stuff like that. It took some time off from what little he used for school, and more so when he started making some longer trips to Tokyo with the money he got, but to him it was worth it.

Third year of middle school flew by like that. High school wasn’t much different. There was that time when Kippei’s folks started asking stuff like whether there were any girls they were into at school. Back then Chitose couldn’t make it out if they were oblivious to what was going on or if they knew and disapproved. They whispered about it at night in Kippei’s bed, with the spare futon left alone on the floor for show. Chitose felt his own heart beating a little funny when Kippei told him, fingers entangled in his hair, that he was not going to care if his parents were against this.

They were against it and Kippei did care but didn't want to end things between them anyway. Chitose told him he loved him over the phone, and Kippei told him it was obvious while his dad was telling him to get off the phone in the background.

They had a fight or two about picking the apartment to rent. Kippei wanted something practical with easy enough commuting to his new school (he was going to be a P.E. teacher). Chitose wasn’t sure what he wanted, but he knew when he liked a place or not. There were several he didn't like - they had bad feng shui about them. Kippei told him to get a grip when Chitose told him that, but ended up ruling out the worst ones from their list anyway. “The agent seemed dodgy” or “the kitchen was too small”, he said.

They got something in the middle ground - an unrenovated flat in an oldish building in a nice-ish neighbourhood. It was pretty tiny, and was easily filled despite both of them only moving in with minimal belongings. It became even crampier when Miyuki and An invited themself over on their very first night there to celebrate their big brothers moving in together. They brought drinks (Miyuki was getting tall and already fooled the liquor stores) and asked about what “Sen-nii” was going to do for a living and beat them in Alias. So that made Chitose feel pretty old. But then again, sitting there with their girls, having Kippei's arm draped over his shoulder in a new home that was small and a little crappy, but theirs, who was he to complain. Because after all those years he had known the guy sitting there with him - playing tennis, being separated, being back together again and growing into something bigger than they used to be - wasn’t this like it always had been with them. Not perfect, but better than everything else.


End file.
